Robert Kirby's first comic zine, published in 1991, was called Strange Looking Exile. Aside from his own comics the zine also featured work by Diane DiMassa, Roberta Gregory, Nick Leonard and Alison Bechdal. It was featured in the Factsheet Five Zine Reader.The zine ceased publication in 1994, at which time Kirby joined forces with fellow comic artist David Kelly to release a new comic compzine called Boy Trouble. Since its inception in 1994, four issues were released in zine form, with issue five, the 10th Anniversary issue, being released as a book in 2004. Contributors include Anonymous Boy, Craig Bostick, Cathy Camper, Jennifer Camper, C. Bard Cole, Michael Fahy, Leanne Franson, Andy Hartzell, G.B. Jones, Nick Leonard and Sina Shamsavari.

Robert Kirby is also the creator of the syndicated comic strip Curbside, which appears in publications such as Chicago Nightlines, Out In the Mountains and Lavender Magazine. The collected strips have been published in two books and have been translated into Spanish for a special edition. In the early 2000's, State Representative Nancy Sheltra (R-Derby) protested the presence of the publication Out In The Mountains in the Vermont Statehouse due to Kirby's strip Curbside in the magazine, which featured two bare chested male cartoon characters kissing, which Sheltra insisted was "pornographic". The paper continued to run Kirby's comic.